It was formed as a replacement for the Eishockey-Bundesliga and became the new top-tier league in Germany as a result. In the —17 season the league was the second-best supported in Europe, behind the Swiss National League A , with an average attendance of 6, spectators per game.

The Eishockey-Bundesliga was formed in as the elite hockey competition in the Federal Republic of Germany, replacing the Oberliga in this position.

It was in turn replaced by the Deutsche Eishockey Liga, which now also carries the name 1st Bundesliga in its logo. The condition of these earlier leagues had become intolerable.

Many 1st and 2nd division teams were heavily in debt. The 2nd division attracted few sponsors and spectators. As a result, many clubs were forced to fold or withdraw to the lower leagues.

Fans and corporate sponsors focused on the 1st Bundesliga teams, forcing the elite teams to invest heavily in players to avoid relegation.

This increased budgets 25 percent over the previous two years. In the final Bundesliga season, —94, only 11 teams wanted to play in the 2nd Bundesliga.

Furthermore, two teams folded during and after the season. This made it difficult to attract serious sponsorship. In January , 20 out of the remaining 21 1st and 2nd Bundesliga teams voted for creating a new entity, the DEL.

Upon founding, the "DEL Betriebsgesellschaft mbH" was the first German professional sports league managed by an organization whose members were incorporated as well.

The goal behind the DEL was to create a league, based on the model of the North American NHL , in which teams could play consistently without relegation concerns and create a stable league.

Clubs in the DEL were required to conform to rules , which were designed to ensure long-term viability. Twelve clubs from the old 1st Bundesliga , and six from the 2nd Bundesliga came together as founding members.

The new league immediately attracted corporate sponsorship with the Krombacher Brewery , which was prominently featured on the new league logo.

The hope of avoiding the troubles of the old Bundesliga by stricter financial controls did not materialize. Hofherr was Mad Dogs former president and it was alleged that he must have known about their desperate financial situation.

The Bosman ruling , a decision of the European Court of Justice regarding the movement of labor in soccer, had profound influence on the league.

The old Bundesliga had national character with German clubs competing for the German title using mostly German players. After the ruling European Union players were excluded from the "foreign" player quota.

This lowered costs significantly, enabling smaller teams to compete more effectively. However, frequent player moves were not viewed positively by the fans, resulting in smaller attendance numbers.

The —05 season was significant due to the NHL lockout. The DEL is an independently run league, fully owned and operated by its 14 member teams.

The DEL can only admit one 2nd Bundesliga team per season to the league, unless the league strength falls below fourteen, in which case two clubs can be admitted.

Since the —07 season, no DEL team can be automatically relegated, a team can only lose its league status through non-compliance with the leagues regulations see above.

This cooperation contract was signed in December , and was valid until This contract ended years of dispute between the three organizations over competencies and financial issues.

In November , the DEL announced another change in policy. The league expanded to allow 16 teams beginning in the —09 season , resulting in direct promotion for the 2nd Bundesliga league champions, should they fulfill all requirements and be interested in joining the DEL.

Should this not be the case, or a current DEL team resigns from the league, a selection process would determine the club, or clubs, who would be eligible to join in order required to achieve 16 teams.

For that season, it was also mandated that each DEL club would be allowed to have no more than ten non- EC players under contract.

In its third season, —61, the league remained at a strength of eight clubs but doubled the number of season games to 28 per team. The —62 modus was different again from the previous year.

After 14 games each the league was split into top- and bottom eight, with each group playing another home-and-away series just against the teams in its group.

The reason for this was the large gap between top and bottom clubs which resulted in very one-sided games. Direct relegation was however abolished and Dortmund had the chance to hold the league in a promotion-relegation round, which it completed successfully.

This time however the club from Westphalia could not hold the league and EV Landshut was promoted instead. The —67 season, in retrospect, marked a turning point of German ice hockey, also not an instantaneous one, the shift from the dominance of small-town Bavarian teams to the clubs from the large cities.

The league itself was played with ten teams again, but the modus had changed. A northern and a southern division of five clubs each was played followed by a six team championship round of the best three of each division.

Of the bottom two teams of each division which had to defend their league place the northern clubs both succeeded while the southern clubs both failed.

The league expansion of is generally explained by the fact that the German ice hockey federation, the DEB , wanted the two clubs that had finished third and failed in the promotion round in the league as they were big names, the ice hockey departments of FC Bayern and Eintracht Frankfurt.

At the end of the season, FC Bayern was relegated and soon disbanded its ice hockey department. The modus however had been changed again, all teams played a home-and-away round in a single division, 22 games each.

At the end of this, the best eight teams played another home-and-away round against each other. The championship was won for the first time by the EV Landshut, while Cologne and Frankfurt were relegated.

The —71 saw the league reduced to ten teams but the number of season games remaining at 36 per club. In this season, the league also introduced the Friday-Sunday rhythm of games, with a team playing one home and one away game per weekend, a system that would remain in place for the duration of the league and beyond.

The league modus experienced another change when, instead of ten clubs the league was expanded to eleven, courtesy to the promotion of both Berliner SC and EV Rosenheim.

The later was found to be uncompetitive in the league however, only accumulating twelve points in 40 season games and being relegated again.

It was also the last season of the Oberliga as the second division, the 2nd Bundesliga being introduced in After a year wait, the Berliner SC won another championship in —74 in a league which had returned to ten clubs and 36 season games.

The —75 seasons saw a continuation of the south-north shift of German ice hockey, with the financially strong northern clubs recruiting a large number of players from the southern ones.

In the north, another championship was won by the well-supported DEG, with Berlin coming second. At the bottom end, Kaufbeuren was replaced by Rosenheim for the next season.

The league modus unchanged in —76, the Berliner SC won its second post-war title in convincing fashion while, at the bottom, the last three clubs finished on equal points and the goals for-against had to decide who would finish on the tenth and last place and be relegated.

The team from Cologne was generally the first to be seen as bought together rather than having grown. The success of the club was brought about by the clubs chairman, Jochem Erlemann , an investment banker.

On the ice the league modus had been slightly altered again. After the 36 games of the regular round a championship- and relegation round was added.

The top six played for the championship while the bottom four played against relegation, in another home-and-away series within each group.

In the end, new club AEV was relegated from the league again, under unfortunate circumstances on the last day of the season, while a club joined the league that had never played at top level before, the EC Deilinghofen.

The SC Riessersee, often branded as a rough team, won its first championship since in the —78 season, one point ahead of Berliner SC after 46 games in an for once unchanged modus.

At the bottom of the league, Deilinghofen, who had only been promoted after 2nd Bundesliga champions ESV Kaufbeuren declined for financial reasons, was hopelessly outclassed and thirteen points behind the saving ninth place.

The —79 season saw the league expanded to twelve teams. Because of the insolvency of the Krefelder EV who dropped out of the league, the ESV Kaufbeuren was also admitted to the league while the financial collapse of the EV Rosenheim meant that the ice hockey department joined the SB Rosenheim instead, a lucky move that would soon pay off.

Apart from the financial troubles, Augsburger EV would also declare insolvency at the end of the season and drop down to the Oberliga , Mannheim and Rosenheim were also accused of fielding players without correct transfer papers.

Consequently, both clubs had points deducted but later reinstalled again. Mannheim, under coach Heinz Weisenbach , also started a trend that would soon become commonplace in the Bundesliga, to import Canadian players of German origins, the Deutschkanadier , who would be eligible to play for the West German ice hockey team and not take up any of the limited spots for foreigners per team.

On the ice, the expansion meant that the main round was reduced from four to two games per team, 22 each. The search for the perfect modus continued in —80, with an extra round introduced after the regular season.

The twelve clubs were split into three groups of four, with the best eight overall than entering the championship round while the worst four played against relegation.

The complicated modus was blamed for Riessersee not defending its title, which went, for the first time, to the Mannheimer ERC and its Canadian-German star players.

While Mannheim was, unjustly criticised for playing them other clubs already fielded foreigners with fake passports, which would blow out the following season.

At the bottom of the league, new club Duisburger SC had no trouble saving itself in seventh place while ERC Freiburg came a distant last.

However, the season was overshadowed by one of the biggest scandals in German ice hockey. The German consulate in Edmonton, Alberta , Canada, had sent a message to the DEB highlighting that a number of Canadian ice hockey players were living and playing in Germany with fake German passports.

The DEB banned the guilty players and, eventually, deducted large amount of points from the two teams.

Apart from all this, the league also found itself in a row with the television broadcasters who refused to show games of teams with advertising on their shirts, with the clubs not backing down as they could not afford to lose the sponsorship money.

The —82 season saw a recovery of the league after the scandal of the previous year and the introduction of the sudden-death format in the play-offs.

SB Rosenheim turned out to be the surprise team of the season, finishing fifth after the regular season. The team managed to reach the final where they defeated the Mannheimer ERC and took home their first ever-championship.

Of the new teams, ERC Freiburg, like two years before, could not keep up and was relegated while local rivals Schwenninger ERC came close to qualifying for the play-offs.

The league shrunk in size in —83, now having only ten teams again. A double round of home-and-away games, 36 each, was followed by the play-offs contested by the top eight.

The EV Landshut was the surprise champions, the second title for the club after On both occasions, it was due to its coach, the Czech Karel Gut.

In the —84 season, the league once more made a slight modus change, introducing a round of two groups of four between the regular season and the play-offs and skipping the quarter finals instead.

In —85 the league returned to the old system of a regular season of 36 games followed by the play-off quarter finals.

The EHC Essen-West was admitted to the league to replace the ERC Freiburg, but had to little time to prepare and was heavily outclassed, finishing the season in last place, with only eight points.